How can I do "factual, numbers, stats" only research so I can narrow my search down to a handful of cities i.e. census information etc for the following and please let me know if I am missing anything out important? 

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You will find a lot of useful info here by searching your topics of interest.

None the less, I travel to the areas 1-3 hrs from where I live and look around a lot.Recommendations for Rural narrowed down to this:1) Find a major metro area with strong jobs and increasing population, and search up to 60 miles out.2) Find the most affordable region 60 miles out that has something special to offer in the path of progress.

So you have to be cognizant of this and make sure you are able to implement RUBS or separately meter after you buy to improve your NOI.

As well as pull some extra for improvements to the property, depending on the equity (which I know is there otherwise I wouldn’t be looking at this property)Am I missing anything?

What matters is getting a below market deal, maybe an under-managed property which you can improve upon and raise the rents.

Is there a hope that it might improve in spring or will it burst?

Just search the BP Blog.

It peaked my interest enough to search for shows a little more specific to me.